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In 2013,Wexner’s charitable foundation upped its gift dramatically, donating $8.5 million to the university, as part of a long-planned building endowment. It also happened to be the year the first of his four children started as a Harvard freshman.

The giving kept going. His foundation awarded $26 million to Harvard in 2014, $7 million in 2015 and $14.5 million in 2016. Wexner’s three other children enrolled at the university in 2014, 2015, and 2017. His children are no slouches—one is a second-team All-Ivy League rower, another is pursuing a graduate degree in education (at Harvard) and another attends the university’s Kennedy School of Government.

Les Wexner

Stephen Webster AK

But in the ultra-competitive Ivy League environment, where even the most qualified students can get rejected, having the last name “Wexner” at the university where your dad has regularly donatedsurely doesn’t hurt.

Wexner’s monetary transfers exemplify a common billionaire behavior. Unlike those caught up in the FBI college admissions sting this week, America’s billionaires don’t have to break the law to help their children get into the best universities—they can and often do wield their legacy and money instead. And they’ve been doing so for generations.

Perhaps one of the most high-profile examples of a billionaire family donating to a school before their child attended involves a member of President Donald Trump’s family. In 1998, real estate mogul Charles Kushner, a graduate of NYU, reportedly pledged $2.5 million to Harvard before his son Jared Kushner, who is now a senior advisor to his father-in-law President Trump, was admitted to the university. The Kushner episode was first reported by journalist Daniel Golden, who wrote the book “Price of Admission” about how the rich “buy” their children admission into the country’s most elite academic institutions. The Kushners have long denied the allegation.

“The college admissions systems, which favor legacy applicants and donors, are the [legal and] more polite version of what was exposed in the [admissions] scandal,” says Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who studies inequality in higher education.

It’s hard to know to what extent the billionaires’ wealth and often their generosity helped their kids or grandkids get acceptance letters, but it certainly is a factor. There are plenty of examples of billionaires’ children attending the same elite schools as their parents and even grandparents. Hedge fund billionaire Stephen Mandel has nearly century-old ties going back to his alma mater, Dartmouth College. His grandfather went in the 1920s, his dad in the 1950s. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1978, chaired its Board of Trustees, and was co-chair of the $1.3 billion Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience. He even named his investment firm, Lone Pine Capital, after a pine tree that, legend has it, survived an 1887 lightning strike on the college’s campus. It’s not at all surprising, therefore, that two of his three children went there. Silicon Valley real estate magnate John Arrillaga graduated from Stanford University in 1960. He then sent his daughter, who graduated in 1992, followed by a $100 million donation in 2006 and an additional $151 million pledge in 2013.

“The college admissions systems, which favor legacy applicants and donors, are the [legal and] more polite version of what was exposed in the [admissions] scandal."

Real estate developer Rick Caruso has had decades-long ties to the University of Southern California long before his kids attended. When the scandal broke on Tuesday, it was reported that Olivia Jade, whose mother and father have been charged with bribery in the admissions scheme, was on Caruso's yacht with Caruso's daughter Gianna, also a USC freshman.

Hank Caruso, Rick’s father and founder of Dollar Rent-A-Car, went to USC but dropped out to serve in the Navy during World War II. In 1980, Rick graduated with a business degree. All four of his children have attended, or are currently attending, the university and the Caruso name appears on at least two campus buildings—the USC Caruso Catholic Center and the USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology.

Rick Caruso

Ethan Pines AK

According to public filings, Caruso started donating to USC in 1992 with a $2,500 gift. In 2006, he gave $1 million to the USC Catholic Community and in 2015 he pledged $25 million. In 2018, the same year he became the chairman of the University of Southern California Board of Trustees, he gave approximately $2 million, the same year, Gianna, who is his youngest, started at the university. In total, Caruso’s foundation donated $15.8 million to the university and has pledged an additional $26 million.

In a statement to Forbes, USC says it "depends upon the generous gifts of its donors for student support, but the Admissions Office does not consider family giving when reviewing an applicant." Legacy, on the other hand, goes a long way for applicants. “We are proud to educate multiple generations of Trojans and, in any given year, legacy admissions make up 13%-19% of each incoming class,” the spokesperson said.

Ray Perelman

Nathaniel Welch/Redux

The Perelman clan is deeply tied to the University of Pennsylvania, both in endowment and enrollment. The late investor Ray Perelman donated at least $250 million to the university, including $225 million for the medical school in 2011. Many of Ray’s children and grandchildren have gone on to attend Penn, including his son Ron Perelman, currently worth $9.1 billion, for whom the school’s recently-opened political science and economics building is named.

Another billionaire Penn alumnus is the late Jon Huntsman, who is one of the Wharton School of Business’s biggest benefactors. Wharton’s Huntsman Hall is one of the largest buildings on Penn’s campus, and the International Studies & Business dual degree curriculum is named for Huntsman, who gave over $10 million in 1997 to launch the program. His son Jon Jr. (the current U.S. Ambassador to Russia) graduated from Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1987, and son David graduated from the same college in 1992. Another son, Paul, finished Wharton’s graduate program in 2000, at which point Huntsman Sr. was on Wharton’s Board of Overseers. In addition to three of his nine children, two in-laws and at least three grandchildren have attended Penn.

Schools like Harvard, which boasts billionaire alumni like former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Airbnb cofounder Nathan Blecharczyk, do admit that legacy students and the children of wealthy donors, among others, have a leg up on the rest of the population. According to a statement from Harvard, recruited athletes, children of Harvard graduates, applicants on the dean’s or director’s list (which can include applicants whose parents are donors) and the children of faculty and staff, comprise 29% of admitted students.

“Schools need the money, but they might not need your money [...] They’re not selling spots to the highest bidder.”

But to what degree do donations—or the potential for donations—make it more likely that a student will gain admission? According to Mandee Heller Adler, who founded International College Counselors and who has consulted billionaires and millionaires on how their kids can get into college, wealth is one of many factors, albeit an influential one.

“It’s a big component. A less-competitive application can become an ‘accept’ if it comes from a targeted group, and donors are one of those,” says Adler.

All standards aren’t thrown out the window when a school reads an application submitted by a billionaire’s kid, though. Adler says she’s worked with wealthy families whose children were rejected because of low test scores or grades. She contests the assertion that rich families can buy their kid’s way into elite schools.

“Schools need the money, but they might not need your money,” she says. “They’re not selling spots to the highest bidder.”

In October 2018, Harvard defended itself in federal court against accusations that the university discriminates against Asian American applicants by arguing the institution uses racial quotas to create a diverse class. The lawsuit, which was filed by nonprofit Students for Fair Admissions in 2014, shed light on the details of the often elusive secrets to how Harvard decides who gets in, and who doesn’t. (A decision is expected this summer.)

One of the most revealing aspects of the case came in the form of emails between David Ellwood, who was the head of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and dean of admissions William Fitzsimmons.

In a 2013 email, which had the subject line “My Hero,” Ellwood wrote to Fitzsimmons saying he had “done wonders” by admitting a student—whose name was redacted—because the student’s parents “already committed to a building.” Another two students admitted to Harvard had “committed major money for fellowships before the decision from you.”

The emails clearly show a quid pro quo between Harvard and legacy applicants and mega-donors.

“The outright bribery that we saw emerge from the indictments [on Tuesday] is a cruder version of what goes on everyday at selective colleges,” says the Century Foundation’s Kahlenberg, who also served as an expert witness during the 2018 trial. “Universities use the fact that they have a scarce resource, something of value that people want, to get donors to give money to access that resource.”

I am a staff writer on the vices beat, covering cannabis, gambling and more. I believe in the many virtues of vices. Previously at Forbes, I covered the world’s richest

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I am a staff writer on the vices beat, covering cannabis, gambling and more. I believe in the many virtues of vices. Previously at Forbes, I covered the world’s richest people as a member of the wealth team. I have been a staff writer at Inc. magazine where I wrote about entrepreneurs doing business in the legal fringes of society. Before that, I reported stories that took me to the West Bank, Moscow and Brooklyn.

I am a reporter on the Forbes wealth team, covering the world's richest people. I also work on Forbes' daily Alexa briefing. I'm a proud New Jersey native, Penn alumnus…

I am a reporter on the Forbes wealth team, covering the world's richest people. I also work on Forbes' daily Alexa briefing. I'm a proud New Jersey native, Penn alumnus and New York Jets fan. Follow me on Twitter @CarterCoudriet and email me tips at ccoudriet@forbes.com